One Step At A Time
by Sweet Little Darling
Summary: Post 5x02. Katherine's cold gets worse. Damon makes her feel better. One shot. Datherine.


**One Step At A Time**

Cough.

Sneeze.

Achoo.

Cough.

Sneeze.

Repeat.

Damon Salvatore tried his best to hold in his groan, but clearly it wasn't working and it didn't help that he had vampire hearing and could in fact hear every time the now human doppelganger moved around even if she was upstairs in one of the guest rooms throwing herself a pity party.

He heard her cough for a few more minutes before he decided that the only way that he was going to shut Katherine up is to give her some cold medicine.

Jeremy had warned him that Katherine had a cold once they brought her back for the woods for safekeeping. He went into the hall and pulled open the medicine cabinet that was filled with an assortment amount of medicine for the only human (now two) that was still living here.

Damon picked up the small blue box that said Advil and grudgingly made his way up the stairs.

Just as he had imagine it he found Katherine buried under the covers like a small burrito, there was some smudge mascara under her eyelids that made her look like a raccoon, and her hair was a messy, tangle mess.

To be truthful, even Damon took a small step back, he had never seen Katherine looked this messy. It was kind of nice, but kind of sad, and kind of scary at the same time.

How could a strong, manipulative 500 year vampire turn into a pathetic, crying mess in a matter of months?

The TV was playing loudly across the bed playing reruns of America's Next Top Model.

Katherine scowled at him. "Can't you knock?"

"Why?" was Damon's easy reply. "You never do."

She sniff. "Because I'm a lady. It's rude when you do it to a lady."

He raised an eyebrow. "You don't look much like a lady now."

Katherine flushed and before she could stop herself she hurled a pillow to his face. Damon easily cached it with ease and threw it back at her. It landed next to her. Katherine's thin fingers picked it and she placed it on of her face as if begging the universe to finish her off already.

Damon couldn't help but roll his eyes. "Stop being a drama queen."

"I spend a miserable summer as a human while that bitch Elena is having the time of her life playing college Barbie, and now I find out that the creepy Stefan doppelganger wants my blood, I got a cold for the first time, I learn to shoot a gun, I have the whole town trailing after me, and to make matters worse I don't know if I will ever become a vampire again." she mumbled through her pillow. "So excuse me if I want to whine for a little while. Can you go now? Haven't you had your fun? Can't you just let me die in peace please?"

Damon scowled. When he was feeling guilty he usually responded back in anger, and that was what he was doing now, responding in anger because he couldn't help feeling a bit guilty for the way that Katherine was lying on her bed just ready to give up.

"I brought you some medicine." he said throwing the box on her bed.

"I don't want it."

"It will make you feel better, or do you want Tylenol for kids at least that's cherry flavor."

"Not funny Damon."

"Oh, come on, it's a little bit funny."

"I'm not taking the medicine."

"Come on Katherine, stop being such a brat."

"I'm not being a brat!" she snapped back, her voice growing horse.

Damon rolled his eyes. Fine if Katherine wanted to do this the hard way, then they would do it the hard way. He pulled away the pillow from Katherine's face and only when he did that could he tell how red her face was, mostly it was flushed like when someone was embarrassed.

But this was not an embarrassed flushed.

He laid a cold hand on her cheek which cause Katherine to flinch. He held his breath. She was burning up. "You're running a fever, Kat."

She shrugged robotically as she slumped down. "Yeah, so what? Leave me alone."

"So you need the medicine." he smirked as he opened the box and grabbed a tiny white pill. "Katherine, you got your ass kicked by a vampire that is less than a year old."

Katherine opened her mouth to argue and at that moment Damon slipped the pill inside her mouth and held her jaw close. She gave him a dirty glare and he gave her a cocky grin in return.

"Asshole." she let out a snort.

"Just be grateful that I'm still letting you live here."

"Why?" she snapped. "Will the lovely, innocent, compassionate pure as the drive snow Elena be upset? Oh, wait you haven't told her that I'm staying here have you!"

Damon gaped at her. "Like you have room to talk. If it wasn't for me, your dead corpse would be lying here."

"Well, I'm not that far off." she laid back down on her bed looking more asleep that awake, apparently the medicine was making her drowsy.

He went to the bathroom and washed a cloth with water, he came back and pressed it to her burning forehead.

She looked presently surprise. "Thank you." The cool cloth felt great on her burning forehead.

He shrugged as if it wasn't a big deal even if the words thank you were rare in Katherine's vocabulary. She soon drifted off to sleep. He was sure that her fever and cold would be better in a few days, but a part of him couldn't help but be worried about her. She seemed so vulnerable right now, like she had barely just started to learn the meaning of the word suffering and from a cold for God's sake.

"Why is there a part of me that can't help loving you?" he mumbled in frustration

Katherine continued sleeping peacefully. He stared at her for a few minutes, finally convinced that Katherine wasn't going to die in the next five minutes. Without thinking he gave a quick kiss to her cheek. She stirred, but didn't wake up.

"Feel better," he mumbled before closing the door of her room. And of his feelings.

**THE END**

Sigh. My Datherine feelings should have ended after Damon force fed Katherine to Silas, but I couldn't help it, those two are so sexy together and have so much chemistry : ) Hope you enjoyed the story, a review would be nice : )


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